The Run-Up To Christmas

We have now passed the ‘100 days ‘til Christmas’ mark. Feeling scared yet? It seems we have only just said goodbye to the sunny days of summer and already we are expected to get excited about Christmas. However, for many the thought of spending cash that we don’t really have on mountains of presents, too much food and a new Christmas party outfit we’ll probably only wear once or twice, is a little terrifying.

Christmas is the most common time for people to fall into debt, overspend and miss payments on bills, credit cards and store cards. There is so much pressure on individuals and parents in particular to get the latest gadget, the most fashionable clothes and the coolest sports items. This pressure forces many people to just give in to temptation to avoid seeing disappointment on their children’s faces.

But there are plenty of ways to make Christmas special without costing a fortune. First think of the areas where you spend the most, such as presents for your children and spouse, then consider the areas you can cut back. For example, do you need a huge turkey and another cut of meat, or will a chicken suffice? Can you make your own Christmas cake? What about making your own mince pies? The more you do yourself, the cheaper the food bill will be. We always have too much food at Christmas anyway, so try and keep your dinner menu a little leaner this year.

Do you need crackers with presents in them? These are way over priced and the toys and jokes are a bit of a joke in themselves. You can buy cheaper crackers and then insert sweets or other goodies inside so that the kids still have a surprise inside.

Booze is where a large chunk of our budget goes every Christmas. So for starters, get sparkling wine instead of champagne; buy beer when it’s on offer and cut back on the spirits altogether and instead make your own mulled wine. This will get you just as merry but will cost considerably less.

When it comes to the big stuff, i.e. the presents, shop online. Overall you could save a lot of money by hitting the virtual high street instead of the physical one and you can even use discount voucher codes and make the most of free delivery if you start planning now.

TO DOWNLOAD MP3 FILEs: Each song has its own page. Once you navigate to the song page, right-click on on the song title. After right-clicking, a menu will pop up, then choose “Save Target as”, “Save Link As” or something similar. A dialogue box will then pop up asking where you’d like to save the MP3 file. In some cases (depending on which browser you’re using), the file will automatically download to your default download location.